If Teacher’s Packing, Should Parents Know? MSNBC Debates With Teacher Who Wants To Carry Gun Without Parents’ Knowledge

The Newtown, Conn., shootings that took place last month, where 20 children and 7 school officials were brutally murdered by a lone shooter, has almost everyone debating about whether our nation’s educators should carry guns in order to defend themselves and their classrooms against the next possible school invader. MSNBC’s liberal political commentator Ed Schultz recently interviewed Utah grade school teacher Carolyn Cain who discussed her desire to arm herself with a concealed gun for protection without parental knowledge or consent. Do parents have the right to know that the educators teaching their children could be armed?

Cain, a special education teacher of third to sixth graders, told Schultz she wants to “have options” with regards to carrying a gun since the Newtown shootings. When Schultz broached the subject of safety, with Cain being surrounded by “rambunctious kids” and her carrying a loaded weapon, Cain acknowledged that she was still considering all aspects of the heavy issue.

When Schultz asked the educator, who is also a parent, if the parents of the children she teaches would be accepting of the fact that she carries a gun, Cain responded that her kids’ parents know that she would not put their children in harm’s way.

As far as how Cain would deal with a parent who would object to her carrying a firearm, the teacher responded, “In the state of Utah, a parent doesn’t have to know about it.” Schultz then asked, “Do parents have a right to know?” Without mincing her words, Cain said, “Not necessarily, not necessarily…No!”

Watch the interview here:

When Schultz then asked the teacher what message her carrying a concealed weapon would send out to her kids, Cain responded, “It won’t send any message because they won’t know about it…. I wouldn’t consider carrying one unless I feel I could do so safely.”

When NewsOne spoke to Jason Chapman, spokesperson for the concealed firearms permit department for the state of Utah, about whether a teacher such as Cain could indeed carry a concealed weapon in to schools without parental knowledge or consent, he agreed that what Cain stated was indeed legal in the state of Utah:

“Anyone in the state of Utah is legally allowed to carry a concealed weapon as long as they have a valid concealed weapons permit.” Yes, she is within her rights, again, as long as she has a concealed weapons permit, it doesn’t matter if she’s a teacher in a school.”